Once I Heard a Little Wombat

Inspired by Walter Crane’s nursery rhyme “Once I Heard a Little Bird,” Treml gives readers a lyrical tour of Australian wildlife, as an unseen narrator encounters a sugar glider, bilby, Tasmanian devil, and more. Delicately detailed black-and-white portraits of the animals highlight their gleaming eyes and coarse fur, and the repetition of the verse (“I called to little bilby,/ ‘Won’t you stop, stop, stop?’/ But on went little bilby/ with a hop, hop, hop”) makes for playful yet soothing reading. Eventually the narrator is revealed to be a kangaroo, one that makes a fast friend with a wombat before book’s end. Ages 3–5. (May)